if someone drops you in it

English translation: if someone gets you in trouble

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	if someone drops you in it
Selected answer:	if someone gets you in trouble
Entered by:	Kim Metzger

20:39 Apr 2, 2004

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Cinema, Film, TV, Drama

English term or phrase: if someone drops you in it

"Dad's Army"

You've got to learn comradeship, Pikey boy. If someone nicks your kit - you make sure you nick someone else's. Always be first in the queue when the grub's up - then you can gobble up quick and go round a second time and have some more. And never volunteer. And look after number one - and if someone drops you in it, make sure you drop them in it. That the best part of the Army is the comradeship.

lim0nka KudoZ activity Questions: 1591 (5 open) (1 without valid answers) (13 closed without grading) Answers: 3319 United Kingdom
Local time: 05:30

Guess

Explanation:
This is not American English. I'd say it's British or Irish English.
Nick = steal Grub = food. And look after number one = look after yourself.
I think "drop you in it" means "drops you in the shit", i.e. gets you in trouble with the sergeants, officers. If they report you to the authorities, then you should report them as well.

And if someone drops you in it, make sure you drop them in it.

Selected response from:

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 22:30

Grading comment

Thank you all for a very interesting and enlightening discussion. :)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

3 +18

Guess

Kim Metzger

5 +5

to put someone into an awkward situation...

Tony M

5 +4

puts you in a bad situation

Madeleine MacRae Klintebo

Answers

5 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +18

Guess

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 22:30
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 50

Grading comment

Thank you all for a very interesting and enlightening discussion. :)

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Vicky Papaprodromou

1 min

agree

danya: nurses talking to small children refer to having.. er.. stool as No 1 and peeing as No 2

2 mins

-> Dusty's right - it's the other way around.

neutral

Tony M: Danya, in UK 1 & 2 are the other way round!

4 mins

agree

Kornelia Longoria: so inthe states No2 is stool

6 mins

-> Concur!

agree

jccantrell: How I understood it.

8 mins

-> The whole thing sounds very familiar to this former GI.

agree

María Teresa Taylor Oliver: I don't know for sure about the real meaning of the expression, but I'm certain it's Irish. "Pikey" is an Irish gipsy. Didn't you see Guy Ritchie's "Snatch"? ;) Also, "Dad's Army" is a British TV show.

46 mins

-> Good info. I'm afraid I don't get the British programs on the telly here in Mexico.

agree

Ray Luo

49 mins

agree

chica nueva: This talk of number 1, number 2 is completely off the track. Look after number one = to look after yourself.

1 hr

agree

DGK T-I: well deduced. In this case Pikey is short for Private(Soldier) Pike,an English"mother's boy"amongst mostly old men forming a part time Home Guard platoon,set in 1940-45 Britain (SE England).(A fine comedy series,well worth a journey to see.)+agree Lai'an~

2 hrs

-> Sounds like an Evelyn Waugh story.

agree

Hacene: To drop you in it is to be grassed by someone indeed, nothing to do with N1 & N2. Here N1 is me as in I come First. Definitely UK: dad's army famous UK comedy running for over 40 years. "IT", of in it is "s**t of course,

2 hrs

agree

Craft.Content: N1 and N2 are the ones that Kim and the others are referring to.

3 hrs

agree

Alfa Trans (X)

8 hrs

agree

ohemulen

10 hrs

agree

IanW (X): Well explained - UK English, by the way. (By the way, is it really necessary to write "s**t" instead of "shit"? Whatever next, "d*mn"?)

11 hrs

agree

Liesbeth Huijer

14 hrs

agree

Begoña Yañez: Agree with Ian, Je, Je

19 hrs

agree

hookmv

1 day 3 mins

agree

Jörgen Slet: Also with lai'an, Giuli and Ian

1 day 1 hr

agree

senin

1 day 14 hrs

5 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

puts you in a bad situation

Explanation:
Somebody makes sure you end up in a bad situation.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 7 mins (2004-04-02 20:46:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

UK English

Madeleine MacRae Klintebo
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:30
Native speaker of:

English,

Swedish

8 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

to put someone into an awkward situation...

Explanation:
It may be deliberate, or inadvertent. For example, if I's said I was working late last night, when in fact I went to the bar, and then one of my friends told my wife he'd seen me in the bar, that would mean that he had 'dropped me in it' --- and he might have done so unwittingly, or on purpose.

The character giving this advice to Pike is a cyncial, worldly-wise person, who believes in "an eye for an eye and a a tooth for a tooth"

And by the way, the "it" in which one is dropped refers to sh*t (excrement)!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 day 1 hr 45 mins (2004-04-03 22:25:14 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

In reply to all the discussion about No. 1 and No. 2, I have to confess I had completely missed the point here! I didn\'t realise answerer was referring to the expression in the quotation about \"looking after number one\", which of course means \"putting yourself first\"! Nothing to do with bodily functions this time!
And no, it\'s NOT specifically Irish, but very definitely British English. By the way, the series, long-running though it was, did NOT actually RUN for 40 years (that WOULD be a record!) --- but it was repeated on and off over that period, I believe. Classic British comedy, and a vital document for cultural understanding of our British psyche...

Tony M
France
Local time: 06:30
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 79

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